1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for recording and reproducing voices in a portable terminal such as a portable telephone, and in particular, to a method for recording a short voice memo during a call and then, reproducing the recorded voice memo later.
2. Description of the Related Art
A portable telephone is used for exchanging voice signals and may provide the user with additional services, such as an absent subscriber message service where a short voice message is recorded announcing that the user cannot answer the call at the moment. However, such a message is typically recorded when the phone is not in use, and message recordings are generally not permissible when the phone is being used.
In a portable telephone, when the user has received important information from the other party during a call, there are no means of recording the information except if there is paper and pen available. The inconvenience of always carrying pen and paper with the portable telephone creates the demand for a portable telephone having a voice memo function. The voice memo function can be implemented using the existing function of converting an analog voice signal to digital data to transmit it to the other party and recording the digital voice data. The recorded digital data can be converted back to an analog voice signal and reproduced on the speaker at a later time.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method for recording a short voice memo during a call on a portable telephone.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for reproducing a short voice memo recorded in a portable telephone.
In accordance with the method of the present invention, a voice record key is input during a call, the portable telephone converts the input voice signal to voice data and stores the voice data until a stop key is input. Upon detection of the stop key input, the telephone stops storing the voice data and displays an index number input request message. When the index number has been entered by the user, the telephone records the stored voice data by the index number in a voice memo table In accordance with the reproducing method, the user enters the voice reproduce key , and, in response, the telephone displays a request for the corresponding index number. The user inputs the desired memo index number, and the telephone then determines whether the voice memo table has a voice memo corresponding to the input index number. If the voice memo table has a voice memo corresponding to the index number entered, the telephone reproduces the voice memo using a speaker.